Babel

The title Babel obviously refers to the story from Genesis 11 in which God confuses the languages of humankind so they cannot communicate with each other and cooperate to build a tower into heaven. Judging from the film, God probably could have let things go, because it really isn't language and culture that separate us. It is our inability to listen.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu tells stories of the ways strangers' lives cross, as he did in his earlier films Amores Perros and 21 Grams. This film tells four interconnected stories involving American, Moroccan, Mexican and Japanese families. Each story is built around life and death crisis. Each also deals with trying to communicate to others.

The central story, to which all others are tied in some way, is about an American couple on a tour in Morocco. While on the tour bus in the middle of nowhere, the wife is shot. They are hours away from any hospitals. Other stories involve the family's children and their Mexican nanny at home in California, a Japanese girl who is deaf (and whose father left his rifle in Morocco after a hunting trip) and a Moroccan family who recently bought a rifle to kill jackals. (It's not a spoiler to tell you that it is this gun that shoots the woman.)

Even though the biblical story is about the division of humankind, the film is not as pessimistic as one might expect. There are problems that involve language and culture, but they are not insurmountable. There are times when the common humanity of the people involved overcomes the barriers of language and culture. When the woman is taken to a rural village, she and her husband receive the best care those people can provide. The tour guide who is the only one around who can translate for them stays with them day and night.

It is often those who speak the same language that are most separated. The other tourists on the bus only care about getting on with the trip and eventually abandon the couple in that village. The American embassy, in a dual of wills with the Moroccan government, cancels an ambulance to send a helicopter, but the government won't allow the helicopter in its air space. The other stories also include examples of overcoming lack of communication, and the inability to act outside one's own interests.

The most touching story, to me, is the one about the deaf Japanese girl. Often during those segments there is no sound, even though the scene should be filled with sound. It emphasizes the isolation of soundlessness and reflects the deeper spiritual isolation the young woman faces and tries to deal with in all the wrong ways.

The biblical story (which is never spoken of in the film) gives an explanation of why we are divided into language and cultural groups. It is the kind of legend that explains what people can readily observe. We are indeed divided by tongues and nationalities and race and religion and any number of other barriers. But barriers can be breeched or circumnavigated if we truly want to be with those from whom we are separated. The only way we are sure to fail to communicate with others is if we only listen to ourselves and our concerns. It is the ability to listen that can best overcome the confusion of the ancient story of Babel.